Jarrod Cook

Professor Liliana Naydan

English 15, Section 15

5 October 2004

Journal Prompt #8

The new technology of today allows many things that could once only be done by a visit to a library or a long wait to be done from your own desk. Today more and more libraries have begun to make many resources available online. This allows them to pull material from other sources as well instead of the old method of calling the other library and having it sent. The Penn State library has used the Internet to allow students access to an “A-Z resource list.” This resource list contains a comprehensive listing of many databases containing many alternate forms of media; such as periodicals, newspapers, engineering handbooks, and many more. The databases are arranged in alphabetical order in the list, so if you know the name of your database it is easy to find. However, each database contains material of a different nature, so if you know what you kind of literature you want and not the name of the database you have to do some searching. There is a description page that gives you a short description of all the databases, also arranged alphabetically. This listing would be an excellent source for performing research for papers, projects, or just information on specific topics. Once a database is selected the user is presented with various search options to find what they need. They can search for authors, titles, or just a specific subject and they will be presented with the results within that database.

The Proquest database contains media such as periodicals, newspapers, and journals. These are stored in their full text on an online server and on other databases separated into specific categories. Proquest allows you to search for the information you desire by several different methods. Not only can you search by title and author, but by company, people, or citations and abstract. There is also the option of searching by topic by entering keywords and it will display several categories related to the words. Once an article is found a description of it will be displayed in addition to the full text. There is usually a choice of whether to view full text, full text with images, or adobe PDF files allowing all users access. The empire online database is similar to Proquest, except its topic differs. It contains approximately 60,000 images of original sources such as manuscripts that document things such as history and culture. It allows you to search for documents by the century in which they were written or to explore by topic. You can even choose to view articles by the place in which they came from. This is a great source of information for anyone interested in History. All together these databases provide a very comprehensive overview of a wealth of knowledge. It allows users to easily find the info they need at their fingertips rather than requesting the material through a library and waiting.